


Pretty Poison

by tictocficsoc



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Oh look more non-con, Pepper's turn to angst, Poor Tony, Whump, female villain, kink meme fill, my id is showing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-09
Updated: 2013-03-09
Packaged: 2017-12-04 18:23:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/713667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tictocficsoc/pseuds/tictocficsoc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper and Tony are kidnapped, and their captor has a use in mind for Tony.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pretty Poison

Pepper woke with a throbbing headache, sore muscles, and no memory at all of where she was or how she got there. She was lying on her side on a cold, hard surface with her arms twisted painfully behind her. Six inches from her face was a grimy white wall that gave no clue as to where she might be. Her throat felt parched, her vision was blurry, and somewhere behind her, a familiar voice kept calling her name.

"Pepper, Pep, come on, Pepper, give me something to work with here. Say something, make a noise, move, swear at me, whatever. Just give me some proof of life, okay, Pepper, please talk to me, okay? Pepper..."

"Unnngh," she managed.

The voice behind her -- Tony, of course it was Tony, crazy stuff like this only happened to her when Tony was around -- let out something that sounded suspiciously like a sob, before going on in an entirely different tone.

"About time, Potts. Seriously, what kind of lightweight are you, I got gassed at the same time as you and I've been awake for, what, at least an hour."

"Gassed?" Pepper tried to sit up, and that was when she discovered that her hands were cuffed behind her and her ankles were bound together with duct tape. She was also stripped of everything but her dress and the underwear beneath it. Her shoes, her watch and jewelry, her hair clip, even her pantyhose were gone. The thought of somebody pawing at her, stripping her while she was unconscious, was deeply unnerving.

"What happened?" But even as she asked, she was starting to remember.

Driving back from the gala at the Getty Center. An overturned truck blocking the access road half a mile from the mansion. Happy getting out to see what's wrong. Then a yell, something smashing through the rear windshield, billows of smoke filling the car...

Pepper bit her lip and applied herself to the arduous task of rolling over. It took several tries. The effort amplified her headache and made her shoulders cramp, but it was worth it to get away from the horrid wall and get a wider view of their location.

They were in a windowless, industrial-looking room with a tiled floor and a sturdy metal door, lit by a single bare lightbulb dangling from the high ceiling. Tony was directly across from her, slumped against the wall about fifteen feet away. His hands and ankles were also bound, but he'd been stripped even more than Pepper was, left only in his briefs and undershirt. Pepper could see the dim glow of the arc reactor through the thin fabric.

"Are you all right?" Pepper demanded.

Tony's smile was sharp and humorless. "I've been worse."

"That's not reassuring." Pepper fought to keep her voice ready. She was still too dazed to panic, but she could feel her self-control fraying at the edges. She wasn't a superhero, dammit! She had no coping mechanisms for this sort of thing. "Where's Happy?"

"Not here," Tony said. "I'm sure he's okay, though." He didn't sound very sure.

"Who has us? What do they want?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." Tony gave an awkward shrug. "But I'm going to go out on a limb and say it involves money or tech. Possibly both."

Before they could speculate further, there was the faint click of a disengaging lock, and the door swung open. The woman who came in was quite beautiful, tall and elegant, with dark hair pinned into a stylish twist that set off her large dark eyes and chiseled cheekbones. She was also, Pepper thought, familiar.

Tony apparently thought so too, because he looked as startled as Pepper felt. "Olivia?"

"Ophelia," Pepper corrected. She remembered now. The woman been at the gala, had briefly introduced herself to Pepper and flirted rather aggressively with Tony before moving on to her next target. "Ophelia Sarkissian, a consultant for the Madripoor branch of Seraph Electronics."

"Or not," Tony said dryly. "Unless the consulting business got a lot more cutthroat while I wasn't looking."

"Perhaps consultant is the wrong word," Ophelia said thoughtfully. She wore the clothes she'd had on at the gala, a smartly tailored dark-green pants suit and matching high-heeled pumps, diamond and emerald studs in her ears. "Let's say independent contractor, instead."

"Okay, let's say that." Tony sat up straighter, using the wall behind him for support, and tilted his head back to look up at Ophelia. "Who are you contracting for at the moment?"

"Oh, this is my own personal project." Ophelia smiled, and it made Pepper's skin crawl. "There are a great many people out there who have a use for your unique talents, Mr. Stark. I'm going to sell you to the highest bidder and throw in Ms Potts here as an incentive bonus."

There was a short, horrified silence as the words sank in. When Tony spoke again, his voice was a pretty good approximation of his usual bantering tone, but Pepper knew him well enough to hear the strain beneath it.

"I'm thinking," Tony said, "that the sort of people who'd bid for a weapons designer at auction don't have much use for a corporate CEO. Let Pepper go, she's no part of this."

"Oh, but she is." Ophelia looked delighted. "The very fact that this is the first thing you asked me for shows just how important she is. Ms Potts is insurance for your good behavior. As long as whoever has you also has her, you'll be a good boy." She leaned down and patted Tony's cheek. "Isn't that right?"

"You know who would pay a great deal of money for both of us?" Pepper said. "Stark Industries." She tried to sound as calm and relaxed as Tony did, but she could hear the frightened quiver in her own voice. She told herself it didn't matter, and carried on. "They would pay to get both their Head of Research and their CEO back. Maybe you should invite them to the auction."

Ophelia tilted her head to one side and looked thoughtful for a few seconds. "I'll consider it," she said finally. "But really, this is such a dull conversation and not at all what I'm here for." She braced one hand against the wall and lifted one expensively-shod foot to trace a long, slow line along Tony's bare leg. "I just thought, as long as I have you here for a short while, I might as well make use of you."

Pepper let out a small gasp of protest even as Tony's eyes went wide. The woman couldn't possibly think-- surely she didn't intend to--

She did. She trailed her foot up the inside of Tony's thigh and stopped with the point of her stiletto heel poised at his groin. Pepper found herself wincing in sympathy. Tony held very still.

"Tony -- I may call you Tony, right?" Ophelia's voice was a low purr. "I understand that aside from weapons, this is the one thing you're really good for. How about a demonstration, then?"

"No offense," Tony said in a tight voice, "but I already told you no back at the party. And the ambiance here? Not exactly getting me in the mood."

"I know this isn't what you're used to." Ophelia's mouth twisted into a cool, contemptuous smile. "I apologize for the lack of hookers and blow. But I'm sure we can make it work if we try."

She pushed away from the wall and moved to stand with her back toward Pepper and her feet planted on either side of Tony's hips. A small, angry voice at the back of Pepper's head whispered that this was her cue to do something, while the other woman wasn't looking. But what _could_ she do, trussed up on the floor like a piece of meat? Natalie -- Natasha Romanoff, the undercover spy -- would've known what to do, no doubt. Natasha Romanoff the undercover spy would've never gotten into this situation in the first place. Pepper Potts the jumped-up PA could only lie there like a useless lump, fighting back humiliating tears.

Ophelia flexed her wrist, and suddenly there was a knife in her hand, the blade thin and deadly as a viper's fang. She must've had it sheathed inside her sleeve.

"No!" Pepper blurted out, but Ophelia didn't spare her so much as a glance as she crouched down over Tony's bound legs. Her body blocked Tony from Pepper's line of sight so that she couldn't tell what was happening, but Tony was utterly silent, and that in itself was terrifying.

Ophelia's knife hand moved once, twice, three times, and then she was tossing aside a scrap of fabric that Pepper recognized as the sliced remains of Tony's undershirt, followed a few seconds later by his briefs.

Ophelia slipped the knife back inside her sleeve and, with a surprising show of strength, hauled Tony away from the wall and closer to the center of the room, where she arranged him on his back. Pepper felt sick as she realized that the bitch had done this for her benefit, had positioned Tony to ensure that Pepper would have a clear view of everything that happened next.

Tony looked painfully vulnerable, lying there with his arms pinned beneath him and his shoulders forced back at an awkward angle. A drop of blood trailed from a small cut on his hip. He must've twitched while Ophelia was slicing his underclothes away, or maybe she'd just felt like cutting him. Tony's jaw was set in a way Pepper had only recently learned to recognize as a sign of hurt rather than stubbornness, but she didn't think the cut was the problem. She knew he had frequent chest pains, he'd reluctantly admitted it one night after several drinks and an aborted make-out session on the couch. The muscles around the chest reactor cavity would seize up if he moved too much or held an awkward posture for too long. The way he was lying now had to be painful. Tony remained silent, though, his eyes fixed on the ceiling and his expression blank.

"Tony." Ophelia straddled Tony's legs again and ran her hands over his torso, frowning in mock-puzzlement at his utter lack of response. "You're not living up to your reputation. Perhaps I should ask Ms Potts for advice." She gave Pepper a sly glance. "What do you say, Ms Potts, can you tell me what he likes? You must've had many a chance to find out by now."

Pepper glared back in silence, and Ophelia's mocking smile grew sharp and triumphant. "Or haven't you? Have you two been _waiting_? Have I beaten the famous Pepper Potts to the prize?" She let out a delighted laugh as she wrapped her hand around Tony's penis and began to stroke. "Ah, well. It's not as if you were ever going to be his first, is it?"

Pepper could only lie there and shake in helpless rage. It had been less than a month since she and Tony had shared their first kiss at the Stark Expo. Since then, they'd been too busy dealing with the aftermath of that disaster to have time for much more than an occasional hasty embrace. Not to mention that Tony had spent the first couple of weeks recovering from the effects of palladium poisoning. Pepper was well aware of Tony's past history with women, had been slowly learning not to let it bother her. But it made her sick to know that whatever happened between her and Tony now, it would forever be tainted by the memory of _this_. Pepper hadn't thought she could ever hate another human being as much as she hated Obadiah Stane but this beautiful, cold-eyed woman was setting a new standard.

"There, that's better," Ophelia purred, still stroking. Pepper could see that Tony was becoming hard in her grip. He'd turned his head so Pepper couldn't see his face anymore, but she could hear the small, distressed sounds he was making at every slow pull of Ophelia's hand. She leaned forward to trace the edge of the arc reactor with one sharp nail, watched him shudder, then pinched and twisted his nipple with vicious playfulness. "See, Ms Potts?" She gripped Tony's hair and wrenched his head around so he was facing Pepper. "Doesn't he look like he's enjoying himself?"

_No, he doesn't._ Tony's face looked desperate and ashamed. He was biting his lip hard enough to draw blood, but still couldn't keep entirely silent when Ophelia rubbed her thumb in slow circles over the swollen head of his erection.

"Tony." Pepper fought to keep her voice calm and measured. This was important. This was all she could do for him now. "It's not your fault. Can you hear me? It's not you fault."

"Of course it's not," Ophelia told him in a soothing tone. "Everyone knows you'll stick it in anything that moves, won't you, Tony? Why should this be any different?" She pinched Tony's nipple again, then leaned forward to bite at it. Tony's next breath came out as a sob. Ophelia patted his face. 

"Relax, handsome, we're almost there." She rose to her feet in one smooth motion and began to strip.

She didn't make a show of it, kept her movements brisk and efficient as she peeled off layers of designer fabric until she was standing there only in her shoes and the knife sheath strapped to her arm. Her body was toned and well-muscled. She had a large tattoo on her back, a green snake coiled around the curved blade of a samurai sword. The snake's body seemed to ripple as Ophelia stretched and rolled her shoulders, entirely unselfconscious in her nakedness. Then again, Pepper thought bitterly, what did she have to be self-conscious about? She had all the power in the room and was clearly reveling in it.

Now she coiled herself above Tony like a snake coiled to strike, braced one hand on his chest right over the reactor, then reached down with her other hand to guide him inside her. "Yess..." she hissed as she slid down. Tony's breath hitched and his hips jerked once before he bit down on his lip again and held still.

Ophelia began to ride him in a smooth, languid rhythm, lifting herself up and doing a little shimmy with her hips every time she came down. Her breasts bobbed, and she cupped her hands over them, thumbing her nipples until they peaked. Beneath her, Tony shuddered from time to time but was otherwise still.

Pepper closed her eyes and turned her face away, but not looking only made it worse. It did nothing to muffle the steady slap of skin against skin, or Tony's harsh breathing, or Ophelia's ecstatic moans. Pepper's imagination painted increasingly lurid pictures until she had to open her eyes again, because seeing was better than endlessly imagining the worst.

Ophelia was rocking steadily now, fingering her clit as she ground her hips against Tony's. Her moans became louder and higher-pitched. "Yesss!" She gasped out again, arched her back, bucked violently a few times, then slumped forward on top of Tony with a contented sigh.

She stayed there for a minute or so, wrapped around Tony in a sick parody of a post-coital cuddle, then rolled off him and rose to her knees, lifting her arms to stretch.

"Not bad for a first ride," she drawled, "even if I did have to do most of the work myself. Really, Tony, you could try putting at least a _little_ energy into it.

"Uncuff me," Tony gasped hoarsely, "and I'll show you what I can do." He was still hard, and his skin was slick with sweat. Pepper could see his chest rising and falling with each too-rapid breath.

Ophelia laughed softly and petted his hair. "Nice try, Tony, but I think you underestimate your own ability to make women stupid. Why would I free your arms when you have such a lovely mouth right here?" She cupped Tony's chin in her hand and ran her thumb over his lower lip. "Here's your chance to prove how good a boy you can be for Ms Potts. Please me, and I won't make you watch while I hand her over to my men. You'll be a good boy, won't you?"

Tony carefully didn't look at Pepper as he nodded.

Pepper choked on a whimper. The thought of being given over to an unknown number of hired thugs was terrifying, and she hated herself for momentarily being more afraid for her own sake than for Tony's, for being unable to tell him not to sacrifice himself for her, even though she knew he'd never listen.

"Please," she whispered, not even sure whom she was pleading with, or for what. All she got in response was derisive laughter as Ophelia rolled Tony over and pressed his face between her legs.

It was quicker this time. Ophelia was clearly still riding a high from her first orgasm, and it took only a minute or two before she was coming again. She kept hold of Tony's hair until she was done, then wriggled aside and sprawled bonelessly next to him, using his shoulder as a pillow. Tony stayed still, but his cuffed hands were clenched into fists against his back.

It was a while before Ophelia moved again, long enough that Pepper began to hope she was done and the entire ordeal was over. But then Ophelia sat up and let out a soft grunt of effort as she rolled Tony onto his back again.

"What do you say, handsome?" She drew her fingertip down the length of Tony's erection, and smiled when it twitched. "Third time the charm?"

Tony's head lolled to one side as Ophelia straddled him again. The look on his face was pure, dead-eyed exhaustion -- until it suddenly sharpened. It took Pepper a few seconds to follow the line of his gaze and see the faint glint of metal on the floor. One of Ophelia's hairpins had come loose and was now lying only a few feet away. Pepper could reach it if she rolled over, if she could do it without being seen...

She met Tony's eyes and nodded. He nodded back, closed his eyes for a moment... and then let out a loud, strangled moan and bucked his hips.

"Please," he gasped in a broken voice. "I can't... please..."

"Please what, Tony?" Ophelia sounded smug, clearly pleased to finally get a reaction other than passive endurance. "What do you want?"

"Too much," he choked out. "Can't... anymore... please..."

"Oh, have I tired you out?" She went still on top of him. "Shall I stop now and leave you like this? Is that what you want?"

"No... need to come... too much... please..."

"Is that all?" Ophelia laughed as she began to move again. "Don't let me stop you."

It was meant as a distraction, and it worked. Ophelia seemed to forget Pepper's existence entirely, and focused her attention on goading Tony as he writhed under her, begging to come. She never turned around as Pepper rolled over and closed he hand around the pin, then struggled back to her original position. She caught Tony's eye, but he gave no sign that he noticed, just kept struggling and pleading until Ophelia came above him for the third time.

"Oh, Tony." She leaned forward and planted a sloppy kill on the corner of his mouth. "All that pretty begging, and then you can't even finish in time. What shall I do with you?"

"Please..." he whimpered.

"I suppose you've been good enough to earn a favor." She climbed off his and wrapped her fingers around his erection again. "But only because I'm feeling generous."

She barely had time to get a rhythm going before Tony shuddered violently all over and came. Ophelia smirked as she picked up his shredded undershirt to clean off her hand.

"What do we say when someone does us a favor, Tony?"

"Thank you," he breathed.

"You should be grateful to me, Ms. Potts. I've taught him manners for you. Not that you'll have much time to enjoy it." Ophelia got up to retrieve her clothes. "Perhaps I should leave you your last few hours of privacy before the auction." 

She dressed as quickly and efficiently as she had undressed, and gave the a final, sated smile before leaving the room. As soon as the door clicked shut behind her, Tony swore raggedly under his breath and struggled to sit up.

"Potts. Do you have that pin? Give it here."

It took a ridiculous amount of wriggling around, but eventually they managed to position themselves back to back so that Pepper could pass the hairpin to Tony. A few moments later, he let out a satisfied huff and tossed his handcuffs aside. Another minute or two, and they were both free.

"Tony." Pepper cupped his face in her hands. "Are you all ri--"

" _Really_ bad time to be asking this question, Potts. Come on, the lock on this door is shit. How much do you want to bet I can pick it in under ten minutes?"

"You don't think we can just walk out of here, do you?" Pepper rubbed her temples as she tried to gather her thoughts. "There will be guards, and you're-- you're--"

"Naked," Tony said in a hard voice. "I've noticed, thank you. Given recent events, I'd really rather be naked somewhere else. So give me a hand here, will you? If there's only one guard, the two of us can take him down."

"And if there's more than one?"

"Then we'll be captured, which we already are, so it'll hardly make a difference, will it?" Tony's expression softened a little as he reached out to brush a strand of hair back from her face. "Come on, Pep, I really need help here. Stay with me, okay? It'll be fine."

The sheer wrongness of Tony being the one to try and calm her after everything that had happened snapped Pepper out of her incipient meltdown. She took a deep, unsteady breath, and pulled herself together.

"All right," she said. "What do you need me to do?"

* * *

"She was amazing," Tony babbled at Nick Fury's impassive face while a SHIELD medic checked his blood pressure. "Seriously, you should recruit her or something. I've never seen a woman strangle a man with a piece of evening gown so efficiently. Did Natasha teach you that, Pep? It seems like the sort of thing she might do."

"He's not actually dead, is he?" Pepper asked nervously. She didn't want to kill anyone. Or at least, not anyone she could get her hands on. The guard outside their cell -- there had only been one after all, their only stroke of luck the entire night -- was only hired muscle.

"He's not dead," Fury confirmed impassively. "Though he'll have a sore throat for a while. You did very well, Ms Potts."

It had been just over an hour since the SHIELD rescue party had arrived, descending in black helicopters just as she and Tony had made their way to the roof of the abandoned manufacturing plant where they'd been imprisoned. Since then they'd been collected, given clean clothes, checked over by a medical team, and given a chance to have a brief phone conversation with a battered but blessedly alive Happy Hogan. The strike team on the ground had swept through the plant and rounded up about twenty hired mercenaries and fairly impressive weapons stockpile.

They did not round up Ophelia Sarkissian. No one seemed to know where she was or where she might run to hide.

Fury kept making vague noises about a debriefing, but Tony just kept babbling at him, deflecting the conversation in a hundred directions at once. He appeared ready to keep it up forever, but Pepper could see he was starting to crack.

"Director," she said quietly, "it's been a very long, very bad night. If you must debrief us, contact my PA tomorrow for an appointment."

Being pinned in the glare of Nick Fury's eye felt a little by being targeted by a laser beam, but Pepper stood her ground and eventually Fury nodded.

"You'll be hearing from me," he said and marched out, motioning for the medic to follow him. Pepper and Tony were left in the infirmary, blessedly alone.

Tony let out a long sigh and slumped forward a little, hands curling around the edge of the cot he was sitting on. He was wearing the same clothes Pepper had on, sweatpants and t-shirt with the SHIELD logo, both much too big for him. The black clothes set off how pale he was, and emphasized the dark circles under his eyes. Pepper stood in front of him, put her hands on his shoulders, leaned in until her forehead touched his. 

"Tony," she whispered. "I'm so, so sorry."

"Don't." He said harshly. "If there's one person in this whole mess who has nothing at all to be sorry about--"

"I should've done something. Should've helped you somehow."

"What, while tied up on the floor?" He let out a short, bitter laugh. "Neither one of us could've done anything until you got your hands on that pin. Good job on that, by the way."

"I just--"

"Pepper. Stop." Tony's put her hands on her waist and pulled her close, close enough for her to wrap her arms around him. He pressed his head against her shoulder and just breathed for a while. "When I woke in that cell and you were unconscious and I didn't know who had us... all I could think of was all the ways they could hurt me by hurting you. What happened was-- it was bad, okay, I'm not pretending. But it could've been so much worse."

"Don't!" Pepper tightened her hold on him. "It's not somehow magically better if it happens to you instead of me. Or to anyone. Don't talk like that."

"Sorry," he muttered in a small voice, half-muffled by her shirt. "I'm not thinking straight."

"It's okay." She brushed a kiss across the top of his head. "It'll be okay."

"Stay with me, Pepper."

"I will."

**Author's Note:**

> Written for avengerkink prompt: "Pepper and Tony are captured by a female villain and chained in the same cell together. Pepper is forced to watch as this villain rapes/blackmails Tony into sex. They can be in an established relationship or not, authors choice. "
> 
> Ophelia Sarkissian is Madame Hydra/Viper in the comics. I've reimagined her as an independent mercenary in the movieverse because trying to work her comics backstory into a PWP kink fill is beyond my meager abilities


End file.
